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The Mysterious Area Whiskey Golf

by John MacFarlane 2020

Winchelsea Island

Installations on Winchelsea Island from the sea (Photo from the Pete Mercer collection.)

Area Whiskey Golf ‘WG’ is the name for a section of the Strait of Georgia covered by the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges, a maritime test facility located on the east side of Vancouver Island at Nanoose Bay BC.

It is reported that approximately 300 to 400 torpedo tests are done at the facility each year. The Canadian government allows foreign governments, mostly the U.S., to test torpedo firings. An estimated 31,000–plus torpedo tests have been conducted since the range opened in 1965. The U.S. Navy routinely sends naval warships – submarines and surface ships to area ‘WG’ (more than 400 since 1999).

The Canadian Forces actively use this area for testing torpedo firings. It is isolated from the open ocean; the depths are good for testing and the bottom is relatively flat for easily retrieving a torpedo.

Area Whiskey Golf

Area Whiskey Golf (Image from a scan of a small portion of a CHS Chart.)

The Nanoose Range is maintained and operated by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport WA (NUWCDIVKPT). The range is a joint United States–Canadian facility located in the Strait of Georgia on the eastern side of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The underwater instrumentation consists of 26 short–baseline hydrophone arrays that provide a coverage area of approximately 56 square nautical miles.

Unlike test ranges in California and Hawaii, Nanoose Bay’s average depth of 410 metres and unique seabed makes it easy to retrieve torpedoes. High-tech military hardware is used to track underwater objects in 3–D. The area is part of the test facilities at Canadian Forces Experimental and Test Ranges, which has been open since 1965 as a testing site for torpedoes, sonar equipment, sonobuoys, and other maritime warfare equipment.

The range tests between 300 to 400 torpedoes annually, most of them American. Almost all are launched from surface craft. There have been 31,000 test firings since the range opened. An average of two submarines and six surface ships visit the range each year. The facility is also used by other allies, including the Royal Australian Navy, the U.K., and Norway. Since the range opened, as of 1999 there had been 246 visits by U.S. surface ships, 162 by U.S. submarines, six by Canadian submarines and 254 by Canadian ships. A Chilean submarine visited Nanoose in 1994. In 1996, the U.S. Navy said it had saved $2 billion over 30 years by using Nanoose Bay.

No explosives whatsoever are used: however, a hazard exists due to the possibility of vessels being struck by an unarmed torpedo on its way to the surface.

Area ‘WG’ constitutes a ‘defence establishment’ as defined in the National Defence Act to which the Defence Controlled Access Area Regulations apply. The area, designated Area ‘WG’ (Whiskey Golf) is clearly marked on Canadian Hydrographic Charts 3512 and 3459. Additional information as to active hours may be obtained from:

  • Continuous Marine Broadcast (CMB) WX1 and VHF 21B (listen only)
  • Canadian Coast Guard Marine Communications and Traffic Services Centre (MCTS) located in Victoria
  • Winchelseas Island Control VHF Channel 10 or 16
  • Notices to Shipping

Due to countless requests from vessels (at times only minutes from other calls), mariners approaching Area ‘WG’ and wishing to find out if Area ‘WG’ is active or not are requested to monitor CMB channel prior to calling.


To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John (2020) The Mysterious Area Whiskey Golf. Nauticapedia.ca 2020. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Winchelsea.php

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